Rebecca Wallach (’12) Receives 2012 Skadden Fellowship

December 19, 2011

Rebecca Wallach (’12) has been selected to receive a 2012 Skadden Fellowship, a national fellowship program established by the law firm Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom to enable law graduates to pursue public interest work. For her two-year fellowship, Wallach will work at Selfhelp Community Services, where her project will provide representation to New York City Medicare and Medicaid recipients in order to maintain their access to critical health benefits during New York State’s shift to managed care.

Wallach’s project focuses on people who are “dual eligibles,” which means they receive both Medicare because they are elderly or disabled and Medicaid because they are poor. Dual eligibles are disproportionately vulnerable and medically fragile. Compared to those only eligible for Medicare, dual eligibles are more likely to experience multiple chronic conditions, cognitive impairments, and low literacy. They frequently require long-term care services for basic activities of daily living.

In addition, Wallach’s project aims to develop and implement advocacy strategies to preserve consumer protections, monitor changes in access to community-based long term care services, and enforce the rights of dual eligibles under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).

While at CUNY Law, Wallach has participated in the Economic Justice Project and the Health Law Concentration, during which she worked at Selfhelp Community Services. She also worked as an intern at New York Lawyers for the Public Interest in its Disability Rights Center and has been an active member of the Moot Court team.

The Skadden Fellowship Foundation was established in 1988 in recognition of the need for greater funding for graduating law students who wish to devote their professional lives to providing legal services to the poor, the elderly, the homeless and the disabled, as well as those deprived of their civil or human rights.